Lesbihonest: the Germans love to love
For my past two months in Germany I have been fed all sorts of claims about how Germans are punctual, orderly people who keep their private lives to themselves. I have been warned that if I act “out of line” I should expect to be corrected by someone. These cultural stereotypes certainly do have some truth to them, but for a nation that has been pegged as being structured and rigid, I have observed quite the opposite. My claim about Germans: They love public displays of affection. Everything from cuddling to kissing to groping in public locations ranging from Airport waiting areas to crowded buses to benches on the river—the Germans love to love.
In Grief, Resilience, and My 66th Birthday Gift, a short story in the book Best Sex Writing 2012—The State of Today’s Sexual Culture, Joan Price talks about losing her husband and the pain and time it took to rediscover herself as a sexual being. Price spent her life writing about sex; she had a multiplicity of experiences and partners; she married her husband Robert in her late fifties, wrote a book about sex for the elderly, and practiced it frequently. She was familiar and comfortable with sex in a way that many of us either strive to be or do not understand. But when Robert died, grief erased sexual desire and she spent over a year denying herself any form of arousal. She was not ready for another partner, much less a relationship, and feeling another man’s touch seemed a betrayal of Robert’s memory as a lover. Eventually Price searched for a service that could provide her with an erotic massage, an experience that would allow her to be reintroduced to her true sexual self. She found 
Valentine’s Day. It is another event during which couples have an excuse to dine finely, exchange gifts in place of words, and sex instead of work. Many engagement rings are given, but equally as many hearts are broken. The unattached either celebrate with friends, appreciating that love is not just restricted to pairs of two, or alone, gazing at others sharing this holiday, wondering: when will I get laid? Where do I meet someone? How do I tell him he’s the one? Valentine’s Day is complicated, but don’t let this year’s day become encumbered by clichéd actions and gifts or ruined by sentiments left unshared and feelings of loneliness. Make this year’s Valentine’s Day spontaneous, stress free and sultry. You need not even leave campus.
